100 signatures reached
To: WH & Congress
End Child Labor Nationwide
Across the country, Republicans have been attacking, backtracking and repealing necessary and pivotal child labor laws. Children should not be forced to work during critical ages of their learning development and socialization in the 21st century. It starts with small shifts, but it's only downhill from there. We have to strengthen child labor laws to protect kids from safety violations and hazards.
Why is this important?
At the state level, Republicans have been eroding child labor laws across the United States within the last year—which has mainly looked like shifting guidelines on work hour restrictions for 16- and 17-year-olds.
In the past fiscal year, the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour division reported 835 cases of child labor violations affecting 3,876 minors, and 688 minors employed in violation of hazardous occupation, a 283% increase from nearly 10 years ago in 2015.
The Department of Labor has called for employers to follow national labor law, but the department’s wage and employment division remains understaffed to take up cases to hold employers accountable, with the list only growing from shifting guidelines. Many Republican-led state legislatures copy and paste their state-led strategy. If it happens in one state, it has the potential to be adopted by another—to the detriment of working people everywhere.
In 2024, news of Republican dedication to tearing down and taking away any benefit working people have is commonplace. There's a reason for this: It's yet another part of Republicans' larger desolate vision for the future of America. Another push from the same MAGA Republicans who routinely try to rob senior citizens of Social Security, restrict access to domestic and social programs, and block Medicaid expansion
This is part of a long-term plan to make labor cheaper while empowering corporations and CEOs to undermine workers' rights simultaneously. The impact of these laws is just going to negatively impact children, particularly children of migrants who are often forced into the workforce early because of circumstances out of their control.
The push to roll back these standards is just beginning, and we need to stop it in its tracks now.
Image Credit: More Perfect Union